Ian Fiala Shares “Skills USA” Program at Seward Rotary Club

February 01, 2022

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Seward High Senior, Ian Fiala of Seward presented an informative program on “Skills USA” at the recent Seward Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday noon on Feb. 2, 2022 at the Jones Bank auditorium.  He is the son of David and Amber Fiala of Seward and currently serves as a State Officer-Vice President for “SkillsUSA.”  He was introduced by Rotarian Anita Foor, who is also employed nationally by “Skills USA.” The theme for the Rotary Club programs this month is “Personal Growth.”

Ian shared the definition of the organization of “SkillsUSA.” SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce.  We help each student excel.  They are a nonprofit, national education association.  Skills USA serves middle school, high school and college/postsecondary students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.  

The mission statement of SkillsUSA is that they empower their membership to become world-class leaders and responsible American citizens.  They improve the quality of our nation’s future skilled workforce through the development of SkillsUSA Framework skills that include personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics.  Our vision is to produce the most highly skilled workforce in the world, providing every member the opportunity for career success.  

SkillsUSA serves more than 333,527 students and instructors annually. SkillsUSA has served nearly 14 million annual members cumulatively since 1965 and is recognized by the US Department of Education and US Department of Labor as a successful model of employers driven workforce. 

SkillsUSA is in 53 state and territorial associations, with 650 national partners in business, trade associations and unions. Almost 18,000 classrooms conduct SkillsUSA training nationally and promote thousands of volunteer, community service activities each year.  Almost one quarter of the US occupational areas are covered by SkillsUSA curriculum—130 job categories.

Ian shared his personal story of his involvement with SkillsUSA and commented how he started his freshman year at Seward High and was invited to be part of the SHS SkillsUSA Opening and Closing Ceremony Team for the state contest, and presented a presentation for Job Skills with a Early Childhood lesson plan.  That was the hook that captured his attention and made him want to be even more involved.

He shared that SkillsUSA took him out of his comfort zone and that he was very quiet and shy, and as a student had a high level of stage fright.  He testified that his work with SkillsUSA, in his presentations and his involvement as an officer has helped him overcome those fears.  

The Seward High SkillsUSA Chapter has between 80 and 100 members and many are very involved and attend the State Conference, competing is a wide variety of activities.  He has had the opportunity to serve two years as a state officer, and was one of seven elected his Junior year, from a field of 14 contestants on the state level.  He first served as the State Parliamentarian and now serves as the State SkillsUSA Vice-President.  

He has enjoyed all of his leadership opportunities, including the Mid America Conference held each year at Columbus and the State Leadership Academy-working with other State Officers from other state youth organizations.  

“I have really learned to be flexible and problem solve through SkillsUSA-especially during Covid,” stated Ian.  “With the advancement of Zoom and other on line capabilities we were able to pull off our on-line State Conference and competitions during the Covid-19 years.”

“I also learned the value of the SkillsUSA contests, as with my most recent Job Skills Completion-I shared a lesson plan on how to compose music on the guitar and now I teach guitar lessons and I am putting that lesson to work,” noted Ian. “Those contests have given me confidence and composure-something I really needed to work on for my self-improvement. SkillsUSA has taught me how to connect with others and many leadership skills I will use the rest of my life.”  This year he will compete in the SHS team for Opening and Closing Ceremony and possibly the contest involving Drone Technology.  

Ian plans to attend Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska and major is Spanish and hopes to study abroad in Spain or Peru.  His goal is to become a Spanish teacher. 

“I must recognize and thank my SkillsUSA Advisor-Mr. Kurt Holliday for his time and energy to assist me with my success and I have appreciated and grateful for the wonderful support of my parents and family who have helped me achieve the goals I have worked to attain,” commented Ian.  “I hope I can continue to demonstrate the ideals of SkillsUSA far into my next level of education and realize that my educational foundation is stronger because of what I have learned from SkillsUSA.”

For more information on SkillsUSA contact Ian Fiala at Seward High or visit the SkillsUSA site at skillsusa.org.